One of CRED's long-standing partners is Janaki Menni, and the organisation that she founded, Faith In Action Ministries (FIAM). Based in the state of Andhra Pradesh, FIAM has a number of projects on its books, including St Joseph's School for children age 3 - 16, church planting, training church leaders, outreach programs to tribal communities, supporting a leprosy colony, supporting elderly and orphans.
The school has been the destination for several CRED Teams, and team members have been very blessed as they have served there - seeing the Christian ethos lived out amidst a strongly Hindu background, and seeing how much the children hunger for education. Some of the children are from families who can afford to pay fees, but others attend on a subsidised basis, paying when they can. Most of the families earn their money through agriculture, so the harvests are crucial to them.
Last autumn I mentioned in a blog about the impact of a massive cyclone on the area. Crops were wiped out, many houses flattened, and livelihoods taken away. The impact on the school was that no-one had money to pay their fees, and as there isn't provision for state support, the finances of the school were pretty dire to say the least.
The farmers, who lost everything, had to start again. New crops were planted, and everyone waited with fingers crossed and baited breath to see if they would get the new harvest, and thus some income. The earliest the crops would come through was late April / early May, and indeed some crops have come through, been harvested and sold so that the families have some income again - praise the Lord!
As a result St Joseph's School was able to open for the new academic year which started on June 10th, with the knowledge that fees were being paid, and so the teachers could be paid etc.
Unfortunately however, the weather has struck a cruel blow again. On Thursday 12th June, just 2 days after they opened, all the schools in the district were ordered to close for at least 4 days. The reason: a crippling heat wave that is making it dangerous to be out, and impacting on all infrastructure in the area.
Janaki wrote to me yesterday to tell me of this and ask for our prayers. She said that the temperature is 47+C, that there are hot winds making it even more unbearable, and that the sick and elderly are dying from the heat. The power supplies are unable to cope and so the pumps to the wells aren't working and as a result there is very little water, and especially there is none for farmers to use for their crops so they are in danger of losing another harvest.
These lovely people have gone from one extreme to the other weather-wise and the impact both times has been massive. So much more than just feeling a bit cold and damp, or a bit over-hot; this is livelihood-threatening stuff on a major scale.
There is a phrase that Christian Aid have used for a while now to encapsulate the concept of people suffering from climate change even though their lifestyles are so light on this earth that they haven't caused any of the climate change in the first place: climate injustice.
Janaki and the communities that FIAM work with certainly live very lightly on this earth, and contribute next to nothing when it comes to climate change - and so the impacts that they are feeling through this abnormal weather must certainly be seen as very unjust.
What can we do: well there is certainly the long-term side of things regarding climate change, and each of us seeking ways to tread more lightly; but in the meantime, strange as it may feel to us Brits who have too much of the cooler weather, can we pray that cooler weather will come to Andhra Pradesh, and that normal, healthy life may be resumed.
The school has been the destination for several CRED Teams, and team members have been very blessed as they have served there - seeing the Christian ethos lived out amidst a strongly Hindu background, and seeing how much the children hunger for education. Some of the children are from families who can afford to pay fees, but others attend on a subsidised basis, paying when they can. Most of the families earn their money through agriculture, so the harvests are crucial to them.
Last autumn I mentioned in a blog about the impact of a massive cyclone on the area. Crops were wiped out, many houses flattened, and livelihoods taken away. The impact on the school was that no-one had money to pay their fees, and as there isn't provision for state support, the finances of the school were pretty dire to say the least.
The farmers, who lost everything, had to start again. New crops were planted, and everyone waited with fingers crossed and baited breath to see if they would get the new harvest, and thus some income. The earliest the crops would come through was late April / early May, and indeed some crops have come through, been harvested and sold so that the families have some income again - praise the Lord!
As a result St Joseph's School was able to open for the new academic year which started on June 10th, with the knowledge that fees were being paid, and so the teachers could be paid etc.
Unfortunately however, the weather has struck a cruel blow again. On Thursday 12th June, just 2 days after they opened, all the schools in the district were ordered to close for at least 4 days. The reason: a crippling heat wave that is making it dangerous to be out, and impacting on all infrastructure in the area.
Janaki wrote to me yesterday to tell me of this and ask for our prayers. She said that the temperature is 47+C, that there are hot winds making it even more unbearable, and that the sick and elderly are dying from the heat. The power supplies are unable to cope and so the pumps to the wells aren't working and as a result there is very little water, and especially there is none for farmers to use for their crops so they are in danger of losing another harvest.
These lovely people have gone from one extreme to the other weather-wise and the impact both times has been massive. So much more than just feeling a bit cold and damp, or a bit over-hot; this is livelihood-threatening stuff on a major scale.
There is a phrase that Christian Aid have used for a while now to encapsulate the concept of people suffering from climate change even though their lifestyles are so light on this earth that they haven't caused any of the climate change in the first place: climate injustice.
Janaki and the communities that FIAM work with certainly live very lightly on this earth, and contribute next to nothing when it comes to climate change - and so the impacts that they are feeling through this abnormal weather must certainly be seen as very unjust.
What can we do: well there is certainly the long-term side of things regarding climate change, and each of us seeking ways to tread more lightly; but in the meantime, strange as it may feel to us Brits who have too much of the cooler weather, can we pray that cooler weather will come to Andhra Pradesh, and that normal, healthy life may be resumed.
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